A Lazy Update

It's Sunday morning and I should probably be doing some kind of work ... but I'm taking some time to stay in bed a bit longer and generally laze if not sleep in (the Chinese for which is 睡懒觉 in case you were wondering, I know you weren't), while I try to recall some of the week's events. Also, there's no way I can leave the house right now - Marta went out last night and hasn't come back, and my crappy excuse for a main door key broke off in the lock yesterday evening (fortunately i was able to salvage the actual key part so the lock itself is still okay to use). Lucy had a front row seat to that event, being on the phone to me at the time; I could not believe that the key just sheared off in the lock. Oh wait, I COULD believe it because this is CHINA. That's fast becoming synonymous for "I've never seen this happen before, in quite this way, but it doesn't surprise me that it's happening to me here". I recall this happened the last time round as well, Sam and I came to the conclusion that "Nothing is impossible, you just haven't seen it yet" meaning you had to be in China to witness such an "impossible" event. Whatever the chances of it, having your front door key snap off in the lock is a damned irritation. I want Marta to get back here soonest so I can go and get another key cut, but since she was (presumably) on the lash last night I might be waiting some time.

I don't think so much has been going on recently. Or maybe it has and I've just not taken it all in - this is a problem when trying to document your life, some things happen that may be considered amazing or abnormal to people who don't experience them, but when you live it everything sort of blurs into "normality" ... I suppose one thing I look forward to every week is my Tai Qi class - not only is the teacher really good, but it's free (well for the students anyway, apparently our school pays the teacher, but free at the point of consumption is basically free as far as I'm concerned!) ... Every Thursday afternoon for about 90 minutes we knacker ourselves. I personally think the teacher's idea of a warm up is more work than the exercise itself! A quick run (no, that's not the knackering part) followed by several stretches, mostly for the legs, though after this week I will be adding some arm stretches too, and then some exercises. The first is okay - put your arms out to the sides and goose-step 10 - 15 paces (each foot, so 20 - 30 total). Then it gets a bit harder. With your arms still out to the sides, step forward, as you do so bring your leg up to kick your outstretched hand (same side). Do 10 - 15 paces. Finally, repeat but kick the opposite outstretched hand. Do all of these twice. Sound hard? Well it was to begin with, but now, about a month later, I am finding I CAN do this. Then there's some kicking practice, and a couple of routines (ah, I dont know the Chinese for any of this, I'm useless), which looked complicated when we first saw them, but are less so now we've done them a few hundred times. I can't wait to add breathing to it all, slow it right down and get a work out (holding some of those positions will be "fun"). This week was extra fun though because the teacher decided it would be good for us to box a little. So out came the gloves (I've never worn boxing gloves before) and some training. I would like to do more of this, I have a feeling for all my time in the gym my punches are still weak. Or maybe they're not. I should find someone to experiment on ;)

So Thursday was enjoyable. However, by Friday I found myself so knackered (I seem to have been burning the candle both ends for a few weeks now, I'm trying to regulate my body clock to something sensible but it's not happening so easily) that I stayed in bed most of the day, getting out only to shower and go to the gym (not for a workout, as I normally would, but instead to teach one of the receptionists some English - for free? maybe. Why? Well I wouldn't ordinarily, but since I'm in the gym on a Friday mostly anyway, it's not a problem to spend an extra hour there before / after working out which would otherwise be spent at home doing nothing). This week was slightly different though, because the Tai Qi from Thursday managed to strain my right tricep - all those punches! - and the inner side of my left thigh - all those kicks! I don't recall doing anything much on Friday apart from that.

Saturday I got up stupidly early (my friend texted me the wrong time to meet, fortunately I decided he had made a mistake and got up when I felt was suitable, but it was still early!) to go and give a talk at an English school. Well to be precise, a Uyghur school for teaching English. It's called NSP (Never Stop Program) and the guys that run it are now friends of mine. I'd offered to give a talk, about me, about England, about anything really, and play some language games with the classes, so I did. My morning session lasted 3 hours. That's a long time for a relatively unprepared class. The guys had got all of their morning students together, there must have been easily 150 people in the room, most of whom had reasonable English but had never used it with a foreigner before. So they were understandably delighted. We had lunch and then I was going to go to the gym but I needed time to digest (lag maan goes down slowly) so I did another hour in the afternoon, mainly questions and answers from the guys' more advanced students. It was fun, but wholly tiring! And to top it off, of course I went to the gym later, not going to miss THAT!

Coming home from the gym my key sheared off in the lock and I think that pretty much brings me full circle for the time being :)

Oh and Mum, I know I never reply to your emails and I've not written anything to you in a while, but thanks for all the letters, the bank card, the aid package and so on that have arrived this week :) Dad, I've written you a letter but it'll have to wait for posting. Lucy I'm in the middle of a letter to you. Other people, I need to write more I know!